“A Step” is a collaborative project involving dance, sound, movement, and music. It found its inspiration in the simple, single, foot step which is then followed by sound and developed through subsequent movement. Our intent with this piece is to research the intersection of sound and motion, and to turn the convention of “movement following music” on its head. As music has its own narrative and direct connection to our emotions, we have experimented with the motions informing the soundscape. Both of which, in turn, evolve and shift within their own dimensions. In this way a symbiosis s formed between the two performers and their dissimilar, yet convergent, art forms. Over the course of the piece the dynamics of the interaction are less antagonistic than two mingling interdependent halves, which after an scillation between choreography and composition, finally combine to create a third separate entity. “A Step” is the first phase of a larger process between Akemi Nagao and Michael Tuttle.The following chapter is one in which the music is composed beforehand and though it will have elements of improvisation, the music is firmly in the foreground. Then, for the final phase, the composition of the sound and the choreography of movement will be synthesized, thus placing each art form and performer on level ground.

Michael Tuttle is a composer, sound artist, and bassist. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1976 and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. As a sound artist he has departed from more traditional concepts of melody and harmony and focuses more on texture and structure. This is accomplished by the juxtaposition of manipulated field recording with acoustic and synthetic musical instruments. Using this technique the listener is subjected to sound combinations that evoke emotional responses based not only on musical cultural norms but also deeper obfuscated stimuli.

Akemi Nagao is a contemporary dancer and choreographer and has trained since she was three years old in ballet, street dance, soul dance, capoeira and contemporary dance. She started working as a professional dancer in 2007 and has worked with Micha Purucker (Munich/Berlin), Yui Kawaguchi (Berlin), Silke Wiegand (Frankfurt/Berlin), Louise Wagner (Berlin) + Bernhard Leitner (Vienna) and more. She lives in Berlin since 2007.

[Quelle: Abendzettel]